Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee hope to make their findings public on improving election security before primary contests get underway.

That’s what panel Chairman Richard M. Burr, a North Carolina Republican, and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said Tuesday in wrapping up the open portion of the annual hearing on “Worldwide Threats.”

Releasing a four-page memo authored by aides to House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., alleging abuse of surveillance power by the FBI could ultimately weaken the process by which U.S. intelligence agencies seek secret court orders to conduct surveillance on foreigners, lawmakers and former intelligence professionals say.

Moreover, releasing the memo could erode the trust between the intelligence community and the congressional intelligence panels, these officials say.

Russia has continued its efforts to interfere in the Western democratic processes since 2016, and it shows no signs of slowing down for the 2018 U.S. midterms, CIA Director Mike Pompeo told the BBC Monday.

The U.S. intelligence community has unanimously agreed that Kremlin-backed groups actively interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections with a misinformation campaign on social media and by hacking high-level political campaign internet communications.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is part of a bipartisan group that has problems with the FISA reauthorization measure. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

The House on Thursday approved 256-164 a bill to reauthorize provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for another six years, putting the measure in the Senate’s hands.

The bill, backed by the Trump administration and all the U.S. intelligence agencies, would preserve the FBI and the intelligence agencies’ ability to search a surveillance database for information on Americans with minimal warrant requirements.

The Senate Banking Committee has rejected former Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., as President Donald Trump's nominee to be president of the Export-Import Bank. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

In another example of the increased scrutiny President Donald Trump’s nominees are facing, the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday rejected the nomination of former Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., to lead the Export-Import Bank, with Republicans Tim Scott of South Carolina and Mike Rounds of South Dakota joining Democrats to vote him down.

Garrett was a vocal opponent of the bank when he was in Congress, and his nomination was in trouble from the start. But it follows a pattern of other nominees running into headwinds in the Republican-controlled Senate.

On paper at least, North Carolina’s 13th District seat is the most competitive in the state for Democrats next year. And now, the national party has a candidate they’re excited about in Kathy Manning, who announced her campaign Wednesday.

Manning, a philanthropist and former immigration lawyer, is hoping to take on freshman Republican Ted Budd, a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

Big technology companies faced a second day of public lashing on Capitol Hill, with the Senate Intelligence Committee accusing companies of a lackluster response to Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

On Tuesday, executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter told the Senate Judiciary Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee that ads and automated non-advertising content generated by Moscow-backed companies reached hundreds of millions of Americans during the 2016 election — a number that is far higher than previous estimates offered by the companies.

A car said to be transporting former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort leaves the FBI’s Washington Field Office after Manafort turned himself in to the agency Monday. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

The three Trump campaign associates headlining Monday’s news have been known quantities to Senate investigators investigating Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.

But the unsealing of a court filing showing that former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos had already pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI and is a cooperating witness in the investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III probably explains why he has been elusive.

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is leading the probe into Russian intervention in the U.S. presidential campaign. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

The puzzle pieces were strewn about the board late last week, several small fragments waiting to be put together. There were signs aplenty something was coming in the congressional and federal probes into Russia’s 2016 election meddling, but in isolation, each piece failed to reveal much.

Micah Johnson walks with her boss Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, center, as they get off the Senate subway in May 2016. Also pictured, North Carolina Sen. Richard M. Burr. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

The president may be calling out lawmakers but congressional staffers have their bosses backs.

Micah Johnson, communications director for retiring Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who has been in a war of words with President Donald Trump, defended her boss when she tweeted a cartoon mocking the president.